Girlfriend K and I were on the phone til late last night. We came to the conclusion that the San Francisco scene is quite unlike the New York scene, where dates are made over a margarita and cosmo in a chic downtown bar. On a Friday night, you dress up, heels and all, to greet the party goers all over town.
San Francisco is quite unlike that. To begin with, our bars are rather prohibitive to this mating ritual. Most people hang out in groups and conversations take place at a booth or in a tight circle of friends. Kinda difficult I think, for anyone, to penetrate. So to speak.
The Scene here however is the House Party, where young San Franciscans open their home to friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends. There is at most 2 degrees of separation here (ok maybe 3), unlike meeting Mr. Random in a bar. And you have something to talk about at least. Like who you know and who you came here with and how great the party is. Hopefully that's enough to start.
My problem with the house party, is that on a Friday night, after one week of work, my idea of fun is not repeating my life story to some stranger, 2 degrees of separation or not. Not interested in dressing up, donning make-up or pretending to be interested in someone else's spiel in life. The worst case scenario, I think, is to be stuck listening to a left wing activist talk about the trees in ecuador, or the poor workers in a Nike factory in what they call the Third World. I come from what used to be the Third World. Don't need anymore advocacy from arm chair activists.
"Well, you're never going to meet anyone in that case" says K.
But we did come up with a plan. We decided we should be selective about the House Parties. We struck off the Berkeley left wing House Parties- I'm not that progressive. We aslo struck off the Marina, I've- got- plenty- of- money- left- in- my- trust- fund house parties. Union Street house parties were acceptable. Self made yuppies are always refreshing. (Besides, if I wanted a date that would pick me up in a car, this is probably my best bet). Lower Haight and Duboce parties, we decided would fit both of us best. THe progressive yuppies. Cute, fashionably grungy, looks great in a suit, voted for Matt Gonzalez but understands that the concept of a "living wage" is economically not feasible.
Hopefully, neither of us will chicken out, or rather, get lazy and end up in our favorite Korean Bar again. We shall see.